It took outside pressure, but this is a good move by the Bush administration:
The State Department announced that $18 million in military and economic aid to Uzbekistan, a Muslim country in Central Asia, would be suspended because of its failure to carry out a promised political liberalization or improve its human rights record. Driven in part by congressional pressure, the cutoff should send a message to Uzbekistan’s authoritarian president, Islam Karimov, as well as several of his neighbors in a region where oil, gas and military bases have recently become important: The old formula for partnership with Washington may no longer work.
Nice that we aren’t completely ignoring human rights abusers. But it remains to be seen how committed we are to this cause over the long term.